Chiclayo & Trujillo

Took the most comfortable bed bus from Lima to Chiclayo in the north. There are 2 floors in the bus, on the top the seats are regular, and on the bottom there are only 9 "beds" which incline 160 degrees. Paid $7 over the regular price, but I slept all the way. They also give out blankets and dinner :)
In Chiclayo, booked a full day tour. Just some 20 years ago, a whole new culture was discovered. Some archeologist found ancient jewelry on the black market, and with some questions found the tombs of Sipan which are over 1700 years old. These cultures built their palaces and tombs out of mud bricks (adobe bricks), and over the time they obviously eroded, so now they look like regular hills. Most of these adobe bricks have signature on them, signifying a family who made them. There could be one dot, or a happy face or any other symbol. There was even a road going between two of these hills, and nobody knew that there were the tombs. In here the grave robbers find the sites first, they dig everywhere until they find something, and only then the archeologists somehow take over the site. In this case, there was a shooting between the police and the looters. And now actually all the looters work on the site excavating and maintaining it, so they were given a job to protect it, instead of rob it. I think it's a great outcome. The tombs were excellently preserved, since they were untouched and covered all this time. The lord of Sipan didn't walk, he even had golden shoes. He was carried anywhere he needed to be. So all the kings usually died young (at about age 40 - 45) due to arthritis. The skeleton is in poor condition because of it. The lords in their lives wore silver, gold and shell jewelry. They had a huge nose ring that covered most of their bottom half of the face to hide their emotions, and also to hide that they look like humans. All lords or important people like warriors and priests were buried with hundreds or thousands of pots with seeds inside and jewlery (one lord with 1 ton of gold!!). Also a few people were poisoned from upper class, it considered to be an honor to go to the next life with the lord. There would always be a guardian without legs, so he won't be able to run away, it's his job to protect the lord forever. A watchman who would watch over the tomb, a few animals like snakes, dogs and llamas). So the whole tomb would be full of exciting stuff :)) with the lord in the middle and a bunch of these things around him.
From wikipedia - His jewelry and ornaments which indicate he was of the highest rank, include pectoral, necklaces, nose rings, ear rings, helmets, falconry and bracelets. Most were of gold, silver, copper, gold and semi-precious stones. In his tomb were found more than 400 jewels.

All the originals are in the museum, but the tombs have replications of how they were found. Really cool !!
There is a museum of everything that was found in the tomb, with a lot of pieces that were stolen and returned somehow. For example there is a head crown worth $1,600,000 that was going to be sold in an auction in Miami and was recovered and returned by FBI :)
A lot of cultures were destroyed by bad el ninos. Either lots of rain, or no rain at all, drove lots of cultures to extinction.This area is a pure dessert, and in there lives a hairless dog that has a temperature of 40 degrees, it dies when the temperature falls to 20 :) it's used to cure arthritis :)
Next day went 3 hours south to Trujillo. I also booked a tour from Chiclayo. It was nice, I was picked up in the hotel (although at 6 am), driven to the bus station, and in Trujillo a driver with my name on it was waiting beside the bus :)
In Trujillo went to the temple of the moon which has greatly preserved paintings. This culture made a lot of sacrifices, and it's evident in a bunch of paintings, with birds eating the bodies. There is also a mountain beside the temple, it's thought that people were sacrificed on the top and then the bodies were thrown down. This day also visited chan chan which is the largest Pre-Columbian city in South America, but I forgot everything about the explanations :)
After the trip, I went to the beach town, and just hung out there for 2 days, doing absolutely nothing. So tiring of 3 days or continues travelling and 10 hour tours. There is surfing in there, but the water is cold, the beach is not really nice, and the waves were huge, even for beginners. So I just relaxed in the nicest hostel I've ever been to. So spotless, with a bunch of green and resting areas. Got a hot stone massage there too :)) And ate ceviche, which is raw but marinated fish .. soo good :))

All pictures are downloaded from the internet as the camera was stolen :(
http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/ChiclayoTrujillo#